Brazil looks to space to guard Earthly resources

Nation & World

December 22, 2009|By Chris Kraul, SPECIAL TO TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS

BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil's planned re-entry into the satellite business next year is more than an effort to join an exclusive club and become a global player. It's part of a far-reaching defense plan to ward off potential plunderers of its immense natural resources, officials say.

"In the coming era of scarcity, we're going to have to defend what we've got with our claws, our feet and our weapons," said a consultant to the Defense Ministry who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak. "The challenges could come from neighbors, they could come from the U.S., they could come from China - all allies now, but potential competitors in the future."

Brazil has a lot to protect. In the past two years, it has made one of the world's largest oil discoveries off its Atlantic coast, a find that could propel it into the first rank of oil exporters by 2015. The nation also boasts enormous deposits of gold, uranium and iron ore and is the world's largest exporter of chicken, soy, sugar and beef.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his advisers believe that the resources will be coveted by foreign powers as "global availability" of commodities is reduced by population growth, global warming and over-exploitation, said Thomaz Guedes da Costa, a professor at National Defense University in Washington.

So Brazil has begun to take measures to expand and modernize its defenses.

Restarting Brazil's unmanned space program, which has been on hold since a launchpad disaster killed 21 people in 2003, is an integral part of the plan. A new generation of satellites is planned to help Brazil monitor its agriculture, forests, mineral resources-and territory.

"We want to forecast crops and monitor our coastlines, but also know our territory and gather data from it," said Himilcon Carvalho, policy director of the Brazilian Space Agency. "Defense is a byproduct. The military is very fond of surveillance and wants to know what's going on over land and sea."